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We've heard of a new breed of web site that attempts to give customers one-click access to a range of different accounts -- from checking to credit card to brokerage. We tried the term "screen scraper," which we thought was a popular industry buzzword, but ultimately we located them in Yahoo!'s Personal Account Management category. There we found several dozen sites that are exploring the area of account consolidation. After browsing around, we realized that not all of the listed sites were geared toward financial accounts. Some were designed to help Internet users keep all their
passwords organized in one location. Others were digital "wallets" that stored credit-card information for easy use online. However, we did find several aimed at simplifying your financial life. OnMoney.com allows customers to "consolidate all [their] critical financial information in one summary," including bank accounts, credit cards, investment accounts, and even rewards programs. The well-organized site does a good job of describing its offerings via a multipage tour, and also provides general financial news and information, including feature articles by money guru Ric Edelman. AccountMinder covers similar ground as OnMoney, plus it adds email accounts to the mix. Both of these sites
allow you to remotely monitor the balances of your financial accounts and then log in to the actual accounts themselves with a single click. Another cutting-edge feature of AccountMinder is the ability to access your summary via a Palm Pilot or web-enabled phone. Finally, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention that Yahoo! itself has recently teamed with VerticalOne (the same engine that powers AccountMinder) and provides all-in-one account summaries. For more on consolidating your brokerage, credit card, and bank accounts via Yahoo!, check out the Yahoo! Banking Center.
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